Frendship Bonds
by ffgtakhfan
Summary: A story of how far friendship can be strached before bouncing back. Cloud and Reno, with Zack as an important background character.


Zack was asleep. He had been asleep for the past few hours, and he was having a nice dream about college - and her. The one who had been in his dreams for as long as he could remember…

…That was, until Cloud came bursting into the room. He was wearing bright blue pj's that matched his eyes almost exactly, with Chocobo's on them. He holding his Moogle plush doll that he had had since he was a baby. His blond hair was wildly sticking out all over the place.

It was hard to believe that they were brothers, but it's true.

Zack looked at his digital clock. He saw that it was 3:00am. Definitely nowhere near the time to be getting up.

"Cloud, what's wrong? You have school in a few hours." It was at this moment that he saw that Cloud had tears in his eyes. Zack became worried at this point - Cloud was a Big Boy, and he almost never cried in front of Zack.

Almost.

"I-I had a n-n-nightmare," Cloud sniffled cutely. He just looked so adorable in those pajamas. I could almost eat him whole.

"What about?" Zack asked calmly. He was 17, and as such, had gotten over trivialities that would get 6 year old Cloud upset. But he felt that it would be polite if he listened anyway. He might even be able to do something to rectify the situation.

"A-about one of my friends, Reno. He s-said that we shouldn't play together any more."

"Why not?" Zack enquired. The two of them had been best friends since nursery, and for Cloud's only true to say that to him must have hurt badly.

"He didn't say," Cloud replied, as he hiccupped adorably. Zack sat silently for a moment, then said "Come on, I'll tuck you in bed, and we'll sort it out in the morning, okay."

"Pinky promise?"

"Yeah, pinky promise," Zack sighed as he wrapped his little finger around Cloud's. He personally didn't believe in them, but if it made Cloud happy, that's all that mattered.

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The next morning, Zack personally took Cloud to school that day. Luckily, he had a day off from college that day, so he could take as long as it needed to.

He went straight to the Headmistresses office, and waited patiently as she finished talking on the phone. Once done, she turned her attention to him.

"What seems to be the problem?" she asked.

"Well, it's about my brother, Cloud. He came into my room last night, and said that he had a nightmare about Reno about not being friends with him any more. The problem is, Reno appears to be Clouds only friend - if he does have any more, he certainly hasn't told me about them. So I was hoping that you, or the Canceller, could have a word with them to see what the problem is about."

It took the headmistress a moment to absorb the information, then she simply stated "I can see what I can arrange.""Thank you for your help. I hope this situation gets sorted out soon. I hate to see my baby brother upset you see. I'm sure you understand."

She nodded in response as she shock Zack's hand.

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"So, Reno, why are you suddenly ignoring Sora?" the kind Canceller asked him.

"I'm not allowed to say," Reno suddenly replied.

"Why ever not?"

"Because my daddy will do….bad things to me."

"What kind of things?"

"I don't want to say! I'll get beaten otherwise!" Reno shouted. A second later, he realised his mistake, and began to cry.

"There, there. Come on, give me a hug," the Canceller said, opening her arms so that he could rush right into them. He sobbed his eyes out for a couple of minutes, then managed to calm himself down. Shortly afterward, the Canceller came up with an idea. After explaining it to Reno a few times, and reassuring him that he wouldn't get hurt in the process, Reno agreed.

Reno met up with Sora in the playground, sitting by himself, and looking miserable.

"Hey, Sora, what's up?" Reno said as he walked up to the boy.

"Go away. I don't like you any more," Cloud said dejectedly.

"Well, that's a shame, cause I was hoping that you could come to my house and play games on my computer together…"

"Really! That sounds great!" Cloud exclaimed, not particularly caring about the change in attitude, so long as he had his friend back.

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That afternoon, they went to Reno's house, and let themselves in. Axel was out at work, and wouldn't be back for a few hours yet. So Cloud and Reno had fun in the garden, playing Tag, and generally messing about.

But when they heard the door slam open, that all changed. When Axel saw Cloud in his garden, he lunged towards him, taking out his belt at the same time.

At this point, there was a loud noise of sirens and policemen shouting stuff the boys didn't understand, and suddenly two of them came out of the bushes and put handcuffs on Axel's wrists. As he was being led away, he shouted profanity and threats in Reno and Cloud's direction, but they didn't care.

They were safe.

At that moment, the Canceller and Zack came running out the door, both looking out of breath. Zack came up to Cloud, and asked him if he was hurt or not, and if he was okay in general. Afterwards, he asked a surprising question.

"Reno, would you like to come and live with me and Cloud? Permanently, as an adopted child?"

"Yeah, that would be awesome!" Reno exclaimed.

"So," Cloud asked "Best Friends Forever, Reno?"

"BFF," he replied, as they made a pinky promise.


End file.
